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GNOME: Staring Into the Abyss

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-bet-the-abyss-whines-about-application-menus dept.

New submitter zixxt writes "GTK+ Developer Benjamin Otte talks about the stagnation and decline of the Gnome Project. He describes how core developers are leaving GNOME development, how GNOME is understaffed, why GNOME is a Red Hat project and why GNOME is losing market and mind share. Is the Gnome project on its deathbed? Quoting: 'I first noticed this in 2005 when Jeff Waugh gave his 10×10 talk. Back then, the GNOME project had essentially achieved what it set out to do: a working Free desktop environment. Since then, nobody has managed to set new goals for the project. In fact, these days GNOME describes itself as a “community that makes great software”, which is as nondescript as you can get for software development. The biggest problem with having no goals is that you can’t measure yourself. Nobody can say if GNOME 3 is better or worse than GNOME 2. There is no recognized metric anywhere. This also leads to frustration in lots of places.'"

5 of 535 comments (clear)

  1. I won't believe it... by heptapod · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...until Netcraft confirms it.

  2. Re:Reason? GNOME3 by Zamphatta · · Score: 1, Funny

    Fact is... on Unity or Cinnamon or KDE, I can just switch to a new windows with one step -- move my mouse over to the window & click to bring the focus to it. On Gnome 3, I have to move my mouse up to the top left corner and click on a word, then move my mouse back down to click on the window I want to do something in. That's a convoluted way to just go to another window. It's akin to go to the bathroom by walking in the opposite direction, and touching the wall, then walking over to the bathroom. How could that be a better workflow than just going straight from point A to point B? And this is just the simplest of annoyances about Gnome 3's insanity. The basic stuff should never be a process to do.

  3. Re:I'll say it! by interval1066 · · Score: 2, Funny

    By far. Plus more.

    Double plus ungood even.

    --
    Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
  4. Nope, we _can_ say. by HaZardman27 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nobody can say if GNOME 3 is better or worse than GNOME 2. There is no recognized metric anywhere

    False. GNOME 2 was most certainly better than GNOME 3, and the metric used to measure quality is number of "what the fuck"s, "how the fuck"s, and "why the fuck"s per hour (lower is better).

    --
    Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
  5. Re:Reason? NIGGERS! by Alex+Belits · · Score: 2, Funny

    I am absolutely serious -- GNOME3 UI is worse than goatse.

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.